Author Guide · Psychology & Consciousness
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On 8 November 1970, an Oxford student named Susan Blackmore came back to her room at St Hilda’s after a ouija-board session, smoked hash with two friends, and for the next three hours described seeing herself from above and travelling far beyond her body. She wrote the account down three days later. The experience sent her into parapsychology, and a PhD at the University of Surrey (1980) that found no evidence of ESP turned her into one of its best-known sceptics. She went on to write The Meme Machine (1999), a widely used textbook on consciousness, and a book of Zen questions drawn from her own meditation practice. This guide covers her 10 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 10 key books · 1978–2017 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Susan Blackmore has written 10 key books, from Parapsychology and Out-of-the-Body Experiences (1978) to Seeing Myself (2017). The best known are The Meme Machine (1999), Consciousness: An Introduction (2003), Zen and the Art of Consciousness (first published as Ten Zen Questions, 2009) and Seeing Myself (2017). Start with The Meme Machine; the rest of this guide explains what each book covers and how her work moved from the paranormal to consciousness and Zen.
Where to Start with Susan Blackmore
If you want her best-known idea
→ The Meme Machine (1999) — memes as a second replicator.
If you want a short overview of consciousness science
→ Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction (2005).
If you want consciousness and Zen practice together
→ Zen and the Art of Consciousness (2009) — ten meditation questions.
If you want the out-of-body experience that started it all
→ Seeing Myself (2017).
10 Susan Blackmore Books, in Order
Parapsychology and Out-of-the-Body Experiences
Her first book, published by the Society for Psychical Research in London with Transpersonal Books in Hove. It appeared while she was working on her PhD in parapsychology at the University of Surrey.
Beyond the Body
Her investigation of out-of-body experiences, first published by Heinemann in London in 1982 and in paperback by Paladin in 1983. A 1992 American edition from Academy Chicago added a new postscript.
The Adventures of a Parapsychologist
An account of her years as a parapsychologist, published by Prometheus in Buffalo, New York. It appeared six years after her PhD, whose experiments found no evidence of psi by her own reading.
Dying to Live
Published by Grafton in London, and in the US by Prometheus as Dying to Live: Near Death Experiences. The book gives a materialist account of near-death experiences, explaining them through what happens in the brain rather than through a soul leaving the body; the Society for Psychical Research’s Psi Encyclopedia calls it influential.
The Meme Machine
Published by Oxford University Press in 1999, with a paperback in 2000. Blackmore takes the meme — an idea, habit or skill copied from person to person by imitation, a term coined by Richard Dawkins — and treats it as a replicator in its own right, alongside genes. It is the book her later work on memes builds on, including her 2008 TED talk “Memes and temes”.
Consciousness: An Introduction
A university textbook first published by Hodder & Stoughton in London in 2003 and by Oxford University Press in New York in 2004. It has been revised three times: in 2010, in 2018 with her daughter Emily Troscianko as co-author (an edition that won a Routledge award for revised textbook of 2018), and in a fourth edition from Routledge in 2024.
Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction
Her short guide to consciousness in Oxford University Press’s Very Short Introductions series, first published in 2005. A second edition followed in 2017, and a highly illustrated version appeared in New York in 2010 as Consciousness: A Brief Insight.
Conversations on Consciousness
A book of conversations about the nature of consciousness with researchers and philosophers in the field, published by Oxford University Press in Oxford in 2005 and in New York in 2006.
Zen and the Art of Consciousness
First published by Oneworld in 2009 as Ten Zen Questions and reissued under this title in 2011. Each chapter takes one question — am I conscious now, who is the self, does time exist, is there free will — and follows her thoughts on it during zazen retreats and solo meditation; some questions come from Mahamudra teachings she received from the Zen teacher John Crook, and the final chapter is a response from her Zen teacher. She calls it an “attempt to see whether looking directly into one’s own mind can contribute to a science of consciousness”.
Seeing Myself
Published by Robinson in London in 2017, with a 2020 paperback subtitled What Out-of-body Experiences Tell Us About Life, Death & the Mind. She returns to the subject of her own 1970 experience and of Beyond the Body, now with later research to draw on. Her conclusion, in her own words: “I no longer think anything leaves the body in an OBE.”
In What Order to Read Susan Blackmore
Her books fall into two halves. The early ones (1978–1993) come from her years in parapsychology and deal with out-of-body and near-death experiences; from The Meme Machine (1999) on, she writes about memes and about consciousness itself. You do not need to read them in order.
For most readers, The Meme Machine is the clearest way in. Follow it with Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction for the scientific questions, then Zen and the Art of Consciousness to see the same questions asked from inside meditation. Seeing Myself closes the circle: it goes back to the out-of-body experience that started her career, nearly fifty years later. Consciousness: An Introduction is a full textbook, best kept for readers who want to study the field.
A reading path
1. The Meme Machine (1999)
2. Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction (2005)
3. Zen and the Art of Consciousness (2009)
4. Seeing Myself (2017)
Everything Else Susan Blackmore Published
Beyond the 10 key books: 7 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Other books
4
4 books · 1995–2025
- 1995Test Your Psychic Powerswritten with Adam Hart-Davis; Thorsons, London
- 1996In Search of the Light: The Adventures of a Parapsychologistupdated version of The Adventures of a Parapsychologist (1986), with three new chapters and an index; Prometheus Books, Amherst, New York
- 2010Consciousness: A Brief Insighthighly illustrated version of her Very Short Introduction; Sterling, New York
- 2025Jinny Jana’s Giant Journeyschildren’s book about lucid dreaming; Tamarisk Books
Later editions of Consciousness: An Introduction
3
3 books · 2010–2024
- 2010Consciousness: An Introduction, Second EditionHodder Education; Oxford University Press, New York, 2011
- 2018Consciousness: An Introduction, Third EditionRoutledge
- 2024Consciousness: An Introduction, Fourth EditionRoutledge
The years · 1951–2024
Quick facts about Susan Blackmore
- Known for
- Blackmore is known for turning from parapsychologist to sceptic, for developing the theory of memes as a second replicator in The Meme Machine (1999), and for writing about consciousness from both science and Zen practice.
- 1951
- Born in London
- 1970
- Out-of-body experience as an Oxford student
- 1980
- PhD in parapsychology, University of Surrey
- 1999
- The Meme Machine
- 2008
- TED talk “Memes and temes”
- 2024
- Fourth edition of Consciousness, with her daughter
- Born
- 29 July 1951, London, England
- Education
- BA in psychology and physiology, St Hilda’s College, Oxford (1973); MSc in environmental psychology (1974) and PhD in parapsychology (1980), University of Surrey
- Career
- Senior Lecturer, then Reader in Psychology, University of the West of England, Bristol (1992–2001); Visiting Professor, University of Plymouth
- Honours
- Distinguished Skeptics Award (1991)
- Practice
- Zen meditation, including Mahamudra teachings from John Crook
- Family
- Married to Adam Hart-Davis (2010); two children, including co-author Emily Troscianko
The red mark is 1999: The Meme Machine, the book that made Blackmore’s name beyond parapsychology.
How Susan Blackmore Writes: Testing Experience
Blackmore writes from experience and then tests it. Her career began with a vivid out-of-body experience in 1970, which she wrote down within days, and much of her early work — Beyond the Body, Dying to Live, Seeing Myself — asks what such experiences really are. Her answer changed with the evidence: the experiments for her PhD found no support for ESP, and she later concluded that nothing leaves the body in an out-of-body experience.
Her science books argue a position rather than survey the field from a distance. The Meme Machine treats imitation as a second evolutionary replicator, and her later work on consciousness challenges the dualist view of mind and matter: she proposes that consciousness is what it is like to be the brain’s own predictive models, not something added on top of them. Her textbook Consciousness: An Introduction, now written with her daughter Emily Troscianko, covers the main scientific and philosophical theories of the field.
That habit of looking inward is where her work touches non-duality. In Zen and the Art of Consciousness she sits with questions such as who the self is, whether time exists and where experience happens, and reports what she finds rather than what she believes. She practises Zen but has said she is not a Buddhist: “someone with a questioning mind who has stumbled upon Zen and found it immensely helpful”. The book reads less like an argument than a record of attention, with the dualist picture of an observer inside the head repeatedly put to the test.
Watch
Susan Blackmore in Conversation with Tevin Naidu
Tevin Naidu talks with Susan Blackmore about consciousness and her approach to it, which she frames as a panpsychism of models, in an episode posted in April 2025. From the official Mind-Body Solution with Dr Tevin Naidu channel.
Frequently asked questions about Susan Blackmore’s books
How many books has Susan Blackmore written?
This guide lists 10 key books, from Parapsychology and Out-of-the-Body Experiences (1978) to Seeing Myself (2017), plus 4 other titles in the bibliography: Test Your Psychic Powers (1995, with Adam Hart-Davis), In Search of the Light (1996, an updated version of The Adventures of a Parapsychologist), Consciousness: A Brief Insight (2010) and Jinny Jana’s Giant Journeys (2025, a children’s book about lucid dreaming). Consciousness: An Introduction has also appeared in four editions.
What are Susan Blackmore’s books in order?
Parapsychology and Out-of-the-Body Experiences (1978), Beyond the Body (1982), The Adventures of a Parapsychologist (1986), Dying to Live (1993), The Meme Machine (1999), Consciousness: An Introduction (2003), Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction (2005), Conversations on Consciousness (2005), Ten Zen Questions (2009; retitled Zen and the Art of Consciousness in 2011) and Seeing Myself (2017).
Where should I start with Susan Blackmore?
With The Meme Machine (1999), her best-known book. If you are more interested in consciousness than in memes, start with Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction; if you come to her through meditation, start with Zen and the Art of Consciousness.
What is Susan Blackmore’s most famous book?
The Meme Machine, published by Oxford University Press in 1999. It argues that memes — ideas, habits and skills copied by imitation — are replicators in their own right, and in 2008 she took the idea further in her TED talk “Memes and temes”.
Are Ten Zen Questions and Zen and the Art of Consciousness the same book?
Yes. Oneworld first published it in 2009 as Ten Zen Questions and reissued it in 2011 as Zen and the Art of Consciousness.
What happened in Susan Blackmore’s out-of-body experience?
On 8 November 1970, as a student at St Hilda’s College, Oxford, she returned to her room after a ouija-board session and smoked hash with two friends. For about three hours she described seeing herself from above and travelling far beyond her body, and wrote the account down three days later. She later concluded that nothing leaves the body in such an experience, and returned to the subject in Seeing Myself (2017).
Why did Susan Blackmore stop believing in the paranormal?
Her PhD experiments at the University of Surrey (completed 1980) found no evidence of ESP by her own reading, which she said “overthrew my prior beliefs in everything and anything paranormal”. She left parapsychology for the psychology and philosophy of consciousness. The Psi Encyclopedia notes that some later analysts read her experiments differently.
Was Susan Blackmore involved in any controversy?
Yes, within parapsychology. In 1987 she published a critique of a 1979 visit to Carl Sargent’s ganzfeld laboratory, arguing that his results could have been produced by fraud. Sargent rejected this, saying her 1979 paper differed from the 1987 version, which had a markedly more sceptical tone; he later left the field. Separately, the parapsychologist Rick Berger argued in 1989 and 1990 that her own experiments had been carelessly reported and that some of them had produced significant results.
Who is Susan Blackmore married to?
She is married to Adam Hart-Davis, with whom she wrote Test Your Psychic Powers (1995). Her daughter Emily Troscianko is co-author of the third and fourth editions of Consciousness: An Introduction.
Is Susan Blackmore still alive?
Yes. She was born on 29 July 1951 in London and is a Visiting Professor at the University of Plymouth.
Footnotes
- Short bio — Dr Susan Blackmore
- Curriculum Vitae — Dr Susan Blackmore
- Publications — Dr Susan Blackmore
- An Out-of-body Experience — Dr Susan Blackmore
- Susan J Blackmore — Psi Encyclopedia, Society for Psychical Research
- Zen and the Art of Consciousness — Wikipedia
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“I am someone with a questioning mind who has stumbled upon Zen and found it immensely helpful.”
— Susan Blackmore, on Zen and the Art of Consciousness (2011)
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